Abstract
In the early 2010s, only 23 countries had access to the liquefied natural gas (hereinafter – LNG). Import terminals, despite attractive short-term economics, took long time to build, and rigid supply contracts made truly global use of LNG rather complicated. Concerns about geo-political risks also stunted demand growth from existing supply sources, even when new LNG export routes and sources became available.
Current natural gas market is very different, both in terms of market participants and accessibility and diversity of services. In 2019, the number of LNG importing countries reached 43. Rising competition among suppliers and increasing liquidity of markets themselves created favourable conditions to diversify contract duration, size, and flexibility. In addition, development of floating storage and regasification unit (hereinafter – FSRU) technology provided LNG suppliers with a quick response option to sudden demand fluctuations in regional and local natural gas markets [1].
Moreover, LNG is one of the major options not only for bringing the natural gas to regions where its pipeline supply infrastructure is historically absent, limited or underdeveloped, but also for diversification of the natural gas supply routes and sources in regions with sufficient state of pipeline delivery possibilities. And it concerns smaller natural gas markets, like the Baltic States and Finland as well. Accordingly, prospects for use of LNG there in both mid and long-term perspective must be carefully evaluated, especially in regards to emerging bunkering business in the Baltic Sea aquatory and energy transition in Finland, replacing coal base-load generation with other, more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives.